61 thoughts on “P & Q: Cranberry Walnut Pumpkin Loaf”

I did not have fresh cranberries (never seen them here) but found canned ones (in water and sugar): was good but not the best! Impossibile not to squash them!
Will try again with dried cranberries, I’m almost sure, it will be delicious.

I’ve been wanting small loaf pans for awhile, so I checked in at BB&B. The had a set of 4, chicago metallic brand, for $10. $8 with a 20% coupon, so not bad at all. I think they’ll make nice little breads to share.

I have a couple of baskets and they are great for non-enriched bread. I wouldn’t use them for bread with any kind of dairy or eggs in them. You have to flour them very well, but otherwise they are fine. I have never rinse mine–I just tap out excess flour when I am done and store them in the cupboard. The only problem I have ever had with sticking is when I used them for a really wet dough. Use a stiff dough and you should have no trouble with sticking. They bake up beautifully!

Ha, funny, I wasn’t going to make this one when I thought it was a quick bread! Love quick breads, but I’ve made so many variations on cranberry pumpkin quick bread already. A yeasted pumpkin bread is something new and different though.

This bread is an absolute surprise! I didn’t have time to rise, refrigerate, rise, bake. So I made it, raised it and baked it all within the same 6 hours. End result unbelievably good! My family keeps saying, “this is great bread” with each slice. I make bread all the time so for them to get this excited about it — means it is wonderful. The fruit makes the yeasty bread slightly sweet. I didn’t have fresh cranberries so used craisins and they were great.

I don’t love it as much as the whole wheat loaves but it has an interesting character :-)
I’m making it again with dried cranberries.
I like it toasted and with butter and jam (perfect breakfast with an autumnal touch)

As far as I remember I had to add flour to the dough as it was pretty sticky.
I’ll pay more attention when I remake it.
The funny part was the rising in the fridge, into a plastic bag. Before I went to bed I checked, hoping that the bag would not explode!
I took it out, deflated and put it in another bag (two bags in total – as didn’t want to risk to clean the fridge)!
PS: It did not explode. yuhhui!

I haven’t made it yet, but I’m going to do it in one or two pans. I’ll probably just add about 10 minutes to the baking time, then check the temp of the loaf to see if it needs to go longer. Should be about 200-205F when it’s done.

I’m so sorry I did not write down the time difference of my two loaves.
I think I also followed the temperature check (one of the best tricks I’ve learned from the book! It made my bread baking much easier).

PS: the first bread I made rose so quickly. The one I’m making today is very lazy… Still have plenty of time, won’t cook it without seeing a nice rising!

PS. I don’t tink that you really need an overnight rest:
if you start very early in the morning you’ll be able to bake it in the evening.
My nights never last longer than 7 hours :-)

This is a nice bread. My three loaves rose beautifully; two have already been frozen, and one consumed. I used fresh cranberries, which I always have available in the freezer, but next time I would like to try dried cranberries.

The overnight refrigeration is worthwhile because it improves the texture of the dough before shaping.

Hmmm my bread dough just finished its first “rise” (and I use that term very loosely) and it’s certainly gotten bulkier but not risen per se. It’s quite sticky. Wondering if I might add some flour now as it goes into the fridge overnight or if I’ve messed up :(

What do we need to know about this bread? – it’s another long one folks! Read through the recipe and make sure you don’t start mixing it together at 11:30 PM like I did last night. Didn’t realize that it had to rise at room temp for 2 hours BEFORE putting it in the fridge. After 8 hours in the fridge it doesn’t look much different – cross your fingers for me because I had high hopes for this one.

Is it supposed to rise while it’s chilling overnight? Not sure whether to put in a large bowl to give it room or one that’s the same size so it just chills. Any thoughts? Thanks. BTW mine rose high on first rise.

I didn’t read through the recipe ahead of time, promised fresh bread for dinner and yikes! I started at 1 p.m. What to do? I skipped the overnight refrigeration. If that adds to this bread then it is even more outstanding! We loved the taste, texture and fall orangey look! Blessings!

Just pulled mine out of the oven. I love Love LOVE this bread! It’s not the pumpkin bread you’re thinking of, so don’t be expecting a sweet, squishy, pumpkiny loaf. As someone else pointed out, it’s more like raisin bread. Really good raisin bread. With walnuts. And cranberries.

The pumpkin doesn’t add a distinct flavor to the bread, but it does make the bread moist and gives it a pretty orange color.

I was pleasantly surprised by this bread once it was baked as initially I wasn’t too excited. I’ve been munching on it all morning. I had to use dried cranberries which is fine by me as i havent seen fresh on the market yet. I made sure to read recipe several times and time myself… reserving the weekend for all the rise periods. It requires a tiny bit of babysitting :)

I disobeyed the recipe and did a standard two-rise today, omitting the refrigeration. The loaves are gorgeous, rose beautifully, and are very tasty!!! I do wonder what the refrigeration would offer the recipe. Did anyone try both ways to compare?

I could not find frozen cranberries or fresh, so I added dried sweetened cranberries which I always have on hand for kids’ snacks. Delish!

Whoops, think I should have made this yesterday! I knew it had to sit in the fridge for several hours, but didn’t realize it needs to sit at room temp for 6 hours after. Looks like my post will be going up late on Tuesday! Just took the butter out to warm up.